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Combined again with the refreshing aroma of newly cut grass, filling the air with a delightful, pungent odor that penetrated your skin and your clothing, and lingered long as a happy memory. A light breeze was stirring, but the air was warm and caressing, the kinds of air that stirs within you a strong desire to walk briskly along the sanded shore before breakfast.

The clock had just struck five down in the smoking room, when the buzzer sounded. The men, like trained soldiers, sprang to their feet. One pulled back the Chinese rug. Tom Baxter entered, reached in a hidden recess, and the trap door opened. A moment later they were at the other end of the tunnel which opened into the large, oval shaped shed which covered the shore end of the dock. The shed, over two hundred feet from the house, provided safe entrance and exit for the boats. Nothing could be seen from either the road or the beach. It was an ideal retreat.

At length a tiny speck far out in the Gulf gradually assumed a definite shape, and a few minutes later, with its armed convoy, the powerful motor boat glided into the shed, and was tied fast to the dock. Led Golden, the pilot, jumped out and handed Tom Baxter an itemized list of cargo.

The work of unloading was immediately begun, and under the ex-pert guidance of Baxter it proceeded in a rapid, though quiet and orderly fashion. There was no con-fusion, no lost motion. In less than three hours the entire cargo had been rechecked, consigned, and was moving to its various destinations. Anton LaRue, in his private office, took the list from Baxter, made a few code notations in a little book, then burned the list. Five minutes later he was headed toward Mobile.

ANTON LA RUE drove with the fury of a madman to-Millie Marrero. She was waiting-he knew that. The bordering terrain-with its complexity of lilac trees, telegraph poles, shrubbery, ditches, farm houses, all the by-products of the countryside-seemed fairly to leap at him-while the hot Alabama sun awakened a thousand delightful fragrances-which caressed him wildly, entered his nostrils, and saturated his being-as they whirled in never-ending variety into his face, on the crest of the tempestuous breeze. Anton was in a fever of excitement. Nothing mattered-except Millie. He desired her above everything in the world. He would yield-compromise-conciliate-anything so long as he could claim her! Yes! He even would-marry her! He was consumed by a wild impulse to possess-body and soul-this beautiful, enticing temptress-so blase, but yet so naive!

Late that afternoon the conference had had a heated sessions, and was about to close. At a mahogany table in the living room of Millie Marrero's elegant suite in the Gulf View Hotel, Anton LaRue was seated to Millie's right, and Tom Baxter directly opposite.

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Millie Marrero was speaking: "That is all, gentle-men. you have my conditions. I have made my decisions. It is irrevocable. You can take it, or as they say in the'States,' you can leave it! What's your answer?"

She was insouciant-delightfully so. Radiant in a close fitting, cream colored, flannel sports suit, trimmed in maroon, and her shapely legs encased in hose of sheerest texture she was vibrant with "It," that vague, indefinable, coquettish appeal which women posses, and which has ruled the world since Adam entered the gar-den of Eden. Millie Marrero knew she had Anton LaRue's "hole card." She knew that he carved a rendezvous!She would give it to him! But he must pay! And dearly! She awaited his pleasure.

At length Anton spoke: "Millie, I really believe you're right."

"Do you agree?"

"Absolutely."

"How about you, Tom?"

Whatever Chief says is all right with me."

"I don't want that!I want Yes or No!"

"Well, then-yes."

"Tom, I don't like that. You're holding out on me. It doesn't ring true. Something's in your craw. What is it? Get it out now-or never!"

"There's nothing the matter."

"Are you sure?"

"Absolutely."

"Spoken like a man! And now, gentlemen, in order to avoid future misunderstanding, we shall-recapitulate-as they say in 'Robert's Rules of Order.' First of all we- I say 'we' because it carries with it my acceptance-we shall bring in no more dope. No more opium, cocaine, morphine, heroin or any other habit forming drug. Is that clear?" Anton LaRue nodded assent.

"We shall bring in no more Chinamen-with heavy capture, they can be dumped overboard and drowned like rats! Of all the human devices to make money, this is the dirtiest. Tell me, Anton, please, how much do you get for each Chink?"

"Five Hundred Dollars."

Millie Marrero's eyes flashed like a streak of lightning! "Would you take a human life for five hundred dollars? It must stop! Do you understand? It's fiendish? I'll have no more of it! Speak up, what do you say?"

Anton LaRue nodded his assent: "You're quite right, Millie, in everything you say. There shall be no more of it."

"Very well. Then what about "Le Silencieux," as you call him in French. The Silent One! Your nephew, Richard LaRue! Whom you have tormented and tortured by every conceivable device, until-threatened with madness-he went to a sanitarium-and only by the madness-he went to a sanitarium-and only by the grace of God, was saved! What is there about you
(Continued on page 80)

for May, 1931 13

SPRING
By EFFIE T. BATTLE

Earth has changed her winter garment
And has robed herself in green;
Easter lilies deck her bosom,
Modest violets, too, are seen.

Buttercups stand out all golden,
Hyacinth's bells begin to ring;
Fragrance comes from sweet narcissus,
All the birds now chirp and sing.

Nature seems so full of gladness,
That her face breaks in a smile,
As the sun with ardent glances,
With his rays doth her beguile.

Father, may our hearts be ever
Full of sunshine-free form care,
And though spring may change to summer,
May we e'er find gladness there.

[[image - picture of the woods in spring]]
[[caption]] "Thatcher's Woods" [[/caption]]
-Photographic Decorations by Ganauay

Transcription Notes:
I didn't know how to separate the advert in the middle of page 12 from the rest of the writing so I entered it in-between the break from the last word of the first column. I also didn't know how to separate column one and two on page 12 considering the columns don't fall under the "columned data" instructions for transcription.